Sunday, July 5, 2009
Karen Akers - "Somewhere" (West Side Story)
Grandpère and I have seen Karen perform four times, twice in theaters, and twice at Le Chat Noir, a small cabaret in New Orleans. She's a terrific singer, with a poised and graceful presence. She's beautiful and quite tall, at least six feet. Her style is much better suited to the ambiance of a cabaret, rather than a theater. On one occasion at Le Chat, she came over to our table and sang to Grandpère, to his intense embarrassment.
Karen sings beautifully in French, too, having attended school with the Mesdames of the Sacred Heart, where French lessons were compulsory from early on and having listened to Edith Piaf's records played by her mother throughout her childhood and youth. She's married to a Frenchman and lives part of the year in France.
UPDATE: She's going to be at Le Chat Noir in New Orleans while I'm at the convention in Anaheim. Had I known, I may have skipped the convention. I'm on her email notification list now for future performances.
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Oh, my. Another graduate of the Mesdames. Ms. Conroy is also one - at Elmhurst in RI. Her roommate in her sophomore year was none other than Jane Curtin (SNL and Kate and Alley). Oh, the stories she tells! I'll share one of them at Bar Louie on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteVery good command of voice!
ReplyDeleteOh my! Jane Curtin!
ReplyDeleteGöran, her's is a rather small cult following, which includes a good many gay men.
A beautiful voice is always a beautiful voic... but good singing must be learnt to appreciate ;=)
ReplyDeleteIn person, she's marvelous, much better than in the video. She's perfect in a small café setting. For GP and me, maybe next year.... BTW, she sings a beautiful version of "Send in the Clowns".
ReplyDeleteI first saw Karen on a PBS program. It was so long ago, but I made sure whenever I went into an independent music store I would search for an album (gasp! that's a long time ago!)done by her. Her recordings were definitely not mainstream then. What a pleasure to have you post this, Mimi. Teh innertubes is great!
ReplyDeleteamyj
Amy, I found Karen on a PBS show, too, years ago. I have a good many of her CDs and cassettes. I'm so pleased to find someone else who likes her music as much as I do. She is stunning in a live performance.
ReplyDeleteI remember Grandpère telling me after I raved about her performance on TV, "You sound like you have the hots for her." If I could ever fall in love with a woman, Karen would be the one.